How often do you look at pictures of fitness models with six pack and just drool over how awesome they look. I bet you’ve even caught yourself thinking “I want to have abs like that too” quite a few times, but then dismissed that thought as unrealistic. After all, getting rock hard visible abs is […]

How often do you look at pictures of fitness models with six pack and just drool over how awesome they look. I bet you’ve even caught yourself thinking “I want to have abs like that too” quite a few times, but then dismissed that thought as unrealistic. After all, getting rock hard visible abs is not as easy for women as it is for men. Technically, we’re not genetically meant for abs. Our midsections are much more likely to be soft and round, or, if you’re lucky, just flat. However, it is possible for women to get abs, if you are prepared to work hard. So let’s talk about brilliant ways for ladies to get killer abs.

1. Face The Facts

You’ve probably seen countless articles and videos that promise to make you lose belly fat and get abs in just a few simple steps, but let’s be real – it’s not going to happen. You can’t lose fat in a specific area. There’s just no way to target weight loss only in your midsection. To get abs, you’re going to have to lose weight all over.

2. Abs Are Made In The Kitchen
If you want abs you have to eat healthy. That means you have to say goodbye to fast food, junk food, and all sorts of icky snacks. No matter how many crunches you do, your abs won’t show through until you lose enough body fat. And everyone knows that weight loss is 90% diet and only 10% exercise. So buckle up, and prepare your own meals, where you know exactly what’s on your plate and how much of it you’re going to eat.

3. Get Your Five A Day
We’re talking about servings of fruit and veg here. You’re supposed to have 5 servings of those, every day. It’s incredible how much better you’ll feel if you actually follow that rule. You’ll notice your energy levels raising and you won’t get those pesky food cravings anymore, because you’ll actually be getting all the nutrients your body needs.

4. Water Is Life
Keeping hydrated is key when you’re trying to lose weight and get abs. Water helps you digest food better, it also helps you get rid of toxins and all sorts of waste. So don’t forget to drink your 8 glasses a day.

5. Don’t Skip Meals
So you know how we said abs are made in the kitchen? That’s not a joke. You have to eat and you have to eat enough. Too many people are tempted to skip meals or go on very low calorie diets, because they think that will help them achieve results faster. But nope, the only thing you’ll achieve by skipping meals is a bad mood, hunger pangs, horrible cravings and in the end, you’ll just give up and binge on awful junk food.

6. Fiber For The Win
Fiber is very important for weight loss. It keeps things moving. It also keeps you full for longer and gives you energy to keep going. So make sure you have foods that are rich in fiber, and if you love bread, switch over to whole-grain instead of white. It’s better for you.

7. Know Your Serving Sizes

Serving sizes are tricky, especially in restaurants. Most of the time when you order a meal, you think “well, that’s one serving” right? Wrong. Restaurant servings are way bigger than they need to be, and you have to keep that in mind when eating out. Even prepackaged food often contains a couple of serving sizes. And when it comes to sauces, no one really measures them, and most of the time they’re more calorically dense part of a meal, so it’s best to order them on the side.

8. Cycle Your Way To Abs
Once you’ve figured out your diet, it’s time to exercise. One of the most effective ab exercises is the inverted bicycle. Lie down on your back, put your hands behind your back, get your legs up in the air and ride a pretend bicycle. It might seem easy, but if you do it for 5 minutes straight you’ll definitely feel your abs. And if you actually try to lift your head up and do a little crunch as you do this, you’ll feel them even sooner.

9. Exercise Ball Crunches
Regular crunches are good, but doing them on an exercise ball is even better. See, when you’re on the floor, you’re stable, and you’re only engaging your abs when you crunch up. When you’re balancing your back on the exercise ball, you keep your core engaged the whole time, which makes the exercise way more effective.

10. Planks Are Key
If you want rock hard abs, you need your core to be strong. And guess what exercise works your core muscles best? That’s right – the plank. Get on your elbows, or you hands if you’re strong enough, and keep your form straight for as long as you can. Start with sets of 20 second planks, and try to work your way up until you can plank for a full minute. It seems easy, but when you’re in a plank a minute seems to last an eternity. Also, don’t forget side planks.

11. Do The Twist
Twists are a great way to work on your sides. We’re not saying they’ll magically make your love handles disappear – only a proper healthy diet will, but they will help. You know how it goes, stand with your feet shoulder width apart, bend at the wait and touch your left foot with your right hand, then your right foot with your left hand. You might know this exercise as a “windmill”.

12. Raise Your Legs
Lower abs are the hardest to get, but that just means you have to work hard. You might think leg raises are easy, but try doing 3 sets of 20 and you’ll be surprised how hard it is. There’s actually two ways of doing this. You can either lie down, keep your back pressed into the floor and raise your legs up, then lower them, but don’t touch the floor and go up again. Or you can sit on a bench and raise your legs up, bending the knees towards your chest – this is even harder and engages all of your core muscles.

13. Walk It Off
Running is hard, we know. It takes a while to get into it, and no one can run for long at first. So we suggest you start with walking. Walk whenever and wherever you can. Don’t drive to the shop – walk. Go on long walks in the morning or in the evening. Get those 10k steps in. Then start walking faster. The goal is to walk so fast you’re breaking a sweat.

14. Spin It
Spinning classes aren’t a walk in the park. They’re hard and intense, but they definitely pay off. You might think that it’s easy, after all you’re sitting down. But oh trust me, it’s a full body workout with varying speeds and intensities. And it’s great not only for your abs, but for your bum too!

15. Find Cardio That Works For You
Cardio is very important when trying to shed pounds and get abs, so find the kind that works for you. Some people like running, while others find it tedious. So try cycling, boxing, dancing. Sign up for a zumba class or get some salsa lessons. Make it enjoyable!

]]>https://www.youngsters.pk/15-brilliant-ways-for-ladies-to-get-killer-abs/feed/060878 Signs of a Successful Life That Have Nothing to Do With Money or Famehttps://www.youngsters.pk/8-signs-of-a-successful-life-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-money-or-fame/
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You’re told you need to set goals. You’re told you must be driven to make it to the top. The truth is, you don’t have to do anything. Contentment provides happiness just as much as success does. If you want to strive to be successful, I applaud that, but it’s easy to be seduced by ambition if […]

The truth is, you don’t have to do anything. Contentment provides happiness just as much as success does. If you want to strive to be successful, I applaud that, but it’s easy to be seduced by ambition if you’re not careful.

If you’re not careful you can chase the wrong goals for the wrong reasons.

Often people’s goals are associated with making money or achieving a high level of status, which are fine in an of themselves, but they don’t tell the whole story.

If money and fame weren’t part of the equation, how would you define success?

The Biggest Misconception People Have About Success

“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself” — Viktor Frankl

When you see someone who is wildly successful you look at their success in terms of the rewards it’s granted them. It might even lead you to believe they’re greedy or selfish. But oftentimes their wealth and status came from working on something important and valuable.

Take Bill Gates for example. Many people dislike him because he’s filthy rich, but do you think his primary aim in creating Microsoft was getting rich? No. He loved computers and loved building things.

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t chasing billions. He started by trying to create a better way for Harvard students to connect. His passion for coding eventually led to those billions.

Sure, there are some people who have a primary aim is to make money and nothing more like Wall Street executives, but their success is hollow and they know it.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be successful, but without having non-monetary or status driven reasons behind this want, you won’t be successful anyway.

Extrinsic motivators — meaning that which comes from the outside — don’t keep you motivated very long. Just ask every person who’s had a “million dollar idea” that didn’t pan out.

You need intrinsic motivation — a driving force inside of you — to put in the work it takes to succeed.

A healthy combination of both keeps you in the game. The extrinsic motivators get covered a lot, so let’s focus on the intrinsic.

Today I’m going to share some clear-cut signs of success that have nothing to do with money or fame.

You Quit

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.” — Marcus Aurelius

Success happens when you quit living your life to please everyone around you.

It happens when you quit listening to the noise of the world and focus on what’s important to you.

It happens when you quit thinking reality is anything but what you want it to be.

Quit viewing the world with the preconceived notions you were taught growing up. Quit being “realistic.” Quit worrying and start living.

You Try Things With Uncertain Outcomes

“It doesn’t matter how many times you have failed, you only have to be right once.” — Mark Cuban

All of the worlds most successful people had to try something with an uncertain outcome. Even if things don’t go your way you learn a valuable lesson — it’s not the end of the world. You can try again and again. Success and failure are intertwined with one another. Find someone who’s achieved success and you’ll discover a string of failures along the way.

Once you start to enjoy the process of experimenting, the results get better.

I had no idea whether my latest book would do well, but it didn’t matter. I had the pride in knowing I finished something and bet on myself.

When you bet on yourself and face uncertainty, you create the type of confidence that’s unattainable otherwise. Staying in the same routine without trying anything new is like trying to get stronger lifting the same weight — it doesn’t work.

Once you leap into uncertainty and come out the other end without dying, you realize the power of facing it in the first place.

You’re Polite

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” — Dale Carnegie

One of the most successful self-help books of all time, How to Win Friends And Influence People, offers these simple pieces of advice for being successful.

Smile

Be polite

Praise others for their good work

Don’t argue with other people

It’s astonishing how many people don’t have good manners. Treating people the right way pays dividends. Every person you encounter is the most important person in the world in their eyes — successful people know to treat them as such.

Imagine you’re heading to a meeting with a potential client or business partner. You’re a little bit frustrated with a phone call you just had as you walk into the office.

The receptionist greets you warmly, but you’re rude to her because you’re still fuming about the call. You collect yourself before the meeting and you’re a class act during the meeting.

You think it went well.

What you don’t realize is the fact your potential client considers her secretary her right hand. She trusts and respects her so much that a negative opinion from her is enough to pass on potential business.

Little did you know, you’re rudeness just cost you, big time.

As a rule of thumb, you should be as nice to the janitor as you are to the CEO. First, because it’s the right thing to do. Second, you never know when karma will come back to you.

You Have Many Moments Where You Lose Yourself

“If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. Many of the things we find interesting are not so by nature, but because we took the trouble of paying attention to them.”- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

A life well lived has many moments in a state of flow, otherwise described as being in the zone. Doing this type of deep work will leave you feeling fulfilled afterward. Think back to a time where you’ve lost track of several hours while doing something — that’s flow. Your mission is to find work that allows you to experience that feeling as much as possible. The value of engagement trumps the value of money. Search for work you get completely lost in.

Last, you repeat the experimentation process over and over and over until you leave this planet.

Someone Has Thanked You For What You’ve Done

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. -Marianne Williamson

Has anyone ever gone out of their way to thank you for your work? That’s success. No matter how bad you want success for yourself you’ll never get it until you find a way to provide value to other people. Your business isn’t about you — it’s about your customer. Your creative work isn’t about you — it’s about touching others. Every time someone leaves a kind comment or sends me a message thanking me for sharing with them it gives me more motivation to keep creating. Find success by giving.

Maybe you’re filled with self-doubt about the way you’ll be perceived if you pursue something meaningful.

Think of it this way. It’s not about you. If you don’t share your gifts with the world, you’re robbing us of something we need. You owe us your effort, talent, and creativity.

Pay the universe back for your life with your contribution to others.

You Pissed Someone Off

If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud. — Nassim Taleb

Because you believed in something. Because you have a (well-informed) opinion that others may disagree with. Because you had the audacity to say what we’re all afraid to say. Successful people don’t seek to maintain the status quo. When they see that the system’s broken they look for ways to change it and find like-minded people to help them.

You Do Things That Excite You

“The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is boredom.”- Tim Ferriss

Most people’s lives aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re terribly boring. This is why they need constant entertainment via television. You’re successful if you trade comfort for excitement, a job with decent pay and benefits for a vocation, a monotonous existence for a life filled with rich experiences. Successful people collect memories, not dollar bills.

I’m not here to tell you what should or shouldn’t excite you. That’s none of my business. Nor am I here to even tell you that you must find what excites you.

It’s a suggestion — a door to walk through. I won’t push you through it.

Ask yourself — are you living? Does what you see ahead of you in the next five years excite you?

If not, aren’t you afraid of your situation staying that way?

You’re going to die. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, maybe in three decades. Think of how you’re living now. Do you want your book to end in this chapter?

You Lived A Life That Met Your Expectations

“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.” — Marcus Aurelius

That’s happiness in a nutshell — the only thing you have to do to be successful is live up to your own standards. Not the standards of society. Not the standards of your friends or family members. Definitely not my standards.

Your dream doesn’t need to be predicated on money or status — being able to do what you enjoy and afford to go on the adventures you seek is all you need.

If your dream is to be a world class chef then cook your ass off. If your dream is to be a writer then write. If your dream is to raise a family and you do that well, then you’re successful.

We all deserve to be fully present — to live in a way that’s satisfying more often than not. Money and status are great, but as I said before they’re usually bi-products of working towards something with meaning and doing it well.

Define what success means to you and do whatever it takes to become it.

Do you know the feeling when you sense someone is not honest with you, but you can’t tell for sure. And then those doubts are torturing you for hours without any chance to spot if you were right or wrong. Things get worse when you feel your partner is cheating on you, but never can […]

Do you know the feeling when you sense someone is not honest with you, but you can’t tell for sure. And then those doubts are torturing you for hours without any chance to spot if you were right or wrong. Things get worse when you feel your partner is cheating on you, but never can tell for sure. Here are the main signs your beloved one is right out of somebody else’s bed.

1. The smell

If you notice unexpected body smell change – it’s 95% your partner just had sex. Lovers say they try hard to mask that special odor they get after sweating during their bedroom games. But it’s not only about the brine. If you can sense some new soap aroma (or that might be shower gel as well) – seems like you caught a cheater. That’s the reason you should go for another evidence.

2. The clothes

Look carefully at your partner. Is everything ok with their clothes? Does it seem somehow messy? Check if the outfits are buttoned up correctly. Sometimes secret lovers are in a hurry, so tucking the shirt neatly is not possible. It is also advised to search for some suspicious spots. The clothes might look wet or dirty – both can be the sign.

3. The eyes

Yes, a cheater will not look into your eyes for short time right after having sex with somebody else. Later on they cope with that feeling of being a sinner and become more confident. They find some reasons in their head to blame you for their betrayals and walk around like they’ve just invaded France (at least).

4. Hair

First of all – look at their hairstyle and check if it looks as usual. After bedroom games it should be all messed up and getting it back to order requires additional time which cheaters mostly don’t possess. Together with it we sometimes might find stranger’s hair on our partners too. Start worrying when you see it right at the collar. It means someone was too close to your beloved one.

5. Makeup

If you see your girlfriend having her mascara running and she was (as she says) just having a coffee with her bestie – it should put you on the alert. If her lipstick is smeared around her mouth – she had kissed someone. Most of the lip colors leave spots on skin even if they were rubbed away carefully. So, all you should do is watching.

A lot of cheating men where caught by their partners because of cosmetic spots on their shirts. So, that’s really an issue to be careful with.

6. Skin

Another easter egg here is the way our bodies react to intense activity. Some people get red spots on skin, the others turn pale or start itching because of constant sweating. If you know your partner well – it will be a piece of cake to spot those signs and catch a cheater right there. But do not forget that any of these hints might be caused buy completely innocent activities.

The only solution to the problem is to not be part of the problem I don’t use ads on my blog. Period. It’s devoid of any form of ads, tracking or any active third-party content. Now you’d expect that, as a web developer, I should know how to exploit the benefits of having property on the web, […]

The only solution to the problem is to not be part of the problem

I don’t use ads on my blog. Period.

It’s devoid of any form of ads, tracking or any active third-party content. Now you’d expect that, as a web developer, I should know how to exploit the benefits of having property on the web, monetization and traffic patterns in particular. But why don’t I use them?

Tracking

Let’s say I use ads on my blog. When we load up my blog on a browser, whose caches were just cleared, the ads don’t know who we are. So what they’ll do is assign us an advertising ID which is stored on the browser. The ads will then report my blog’s property ID and our advertising ID to its servers. In return, it renders an ad.

Now the magic happens when we hop off my blog and into another website that uses ads from the same ad network. When the ads load on that site, they’ll report that site’s property ID and the advertising ID given to us earlier. This is how we get tracked — ads know who we are and where we are on the web.

So in a way, by NOT putting ads on my blog, I’m doing everyone a favor and preventing everyone from being tracked. You’re welcome.

Bad content

Ads track our whereabouts on the web for one reason: Maximize conversion(the art of turning window-shoppers into buyers) or engagement (the art of turning lurkers into contributors). Ads tailor ad content to our preferences to increase the chances that we will click the ad.

Let’s say I use ads on my blog. When we load up my blog on a browser, it will try to serve the most relevant ad. If we’re profiled to be living in a place where cannabis is legal, the ad spots on my blog could render ads related to cannabis. But here’s the thing: I don’t smoke nor promote smoking.

Also, ads are masters in the art of attention and distraction. Eye catching graphics, click-bait titles, blending into legit content — those take away the attention from the real purpose of the blog — my content. I write to share interesting content, not for the ads that render on the page.

Lastly, I designed my blog to be a lean, mean, drive-by machine — short and concise content on a fast hosting service with a minimalist design. In and out as fast as possible, hopefully imparting some insights along the way. Putting ads on my blog would be a big step in the other direction.

Conclusion

The ad industry is at odds with privacy (no data, no sales), in the same way the weapons industry is with peace (no war, no sales), or the pharmaceutical industry is with health (no cancer, no sales). It’s a crazy world we live in. And the best thing we can do is to not be part of the problem. In my blog’s case, making it ad-free.

Hopefully this article gave you insight on why I don’t use ads on my blog. As always, if you have comments or suggestions, feel free to drop a line.

If you’ve ever watched a Kung Fu movie, you’ve witnessed a fascinating relationship: the unity of fast and slow. Be it Bruce Lee, Ip Man, Mr. Miyagi or Jackie Chan, in day-to-day life, the master is always deliberate. Quiet. Almost lethargic. He walks slowly. He talks slowly. He eats slowly. He’s never in a hurry and […]

If you’ve ever watched a Kung Fu movie, you’ve witnessed a fascinating relationship: the unity of fast and slow.

Be it Bruce Lee, Ip Man, Mr. Miyagi or Jackie Chan, in day-to-day life, the master is always deliberate. Quiet. Almost lethargic. He walks slowly. He talks slowly. He eats slowly. He’s never in a hurry and no matter who bursts in the front door with exciting or distressing news, he remains unfazed.

But then, suddenly, as soon as the fight begins, he is swift like the wind. Each step lands lightning-fast and with surgical precision. His eyes capture even the tiniest twitch in his opponent’s reactions. He chains together split-second movements, every one of which counts.

And then, as fast as it came, it’s gone. The storm is over. The enemy lies on the ground. And the master folds his hands like a closing flower, retreating back into his zen. Back to unity, where another cycle stands completed.

Meanwhile, we’re not even aware this unity exists. We’re just in fast mode all the time. I mean what do we wake up to? An alarm. If that’s not telling, I don’t know what is. And alarmed we are. Getting ready in the morning feels like rushing to the fire truck, ready to race off, to put out the next inferno, to salvage whatever emergency must have waited for us while we were asleep.

Ding! Wake up! Shower! Get ready! Brush teeth! Faster, faster, faster. Only so we can end up missing the bus, idling in traffic, and forgetting our keys.

That’s the thing: Most of the time, being fast doesn’t matter.

We’re optimizing the wrong things. We raise all hell to drive a little faster, leave the house a little sooner, submit the report a little quicker. And then? Nothing changes. You don’t get a medal for reaching the office parking lot first, no one clocks your front door, and, usually, you don’t get promoted for beating a deadline. These are not the moments that make or break your life.

Of course, feeding the beast is fun. It’s satisfying to fuel the rush, to give in to anxiety. It feels efficient in the moment but, often, won’t make a difference in the end. This is something the Kung Fu master is acutely aware of:

Most of life is better lived slowly.

Everyday chores work better when you’re slower. Washing dishes. Folding laundry. Brushing your teeth. You’ll have to do them just once. You won’t break so many things.

Sex is better when you’re slower. It’s not a race. Either two people win or both of you lose. It’s about caring, communicating, exploring. Not power-humping to see who can finish first and leave the other in their dust.

Talking is better when you’re slower. Pauses allow you to think and help the other process what you’ve said. What’s more, they can help you summon the courage to say what you really mean. And, of course, there’s room to listen.

Making decisions is better when you’re slower. Especially the big, life-defining ones. Like what to work on, where to live, who to marry. Our gut really screws us on these things. We jump into them too fast. We tell ourselves it’s “just for now,” and then we wake up five years later, wondering where time went.

Yes, sometimes, it really matters to be fast. But those moments are few and far between. A life-changing opportunity. A physically dangerous threat. These are not everyday situations.

That’s why Bruce Lee’s “be like water” analogy has remained so popular to this day. It perfectly captures this balance, this default slowness we need.

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.”

Water is a slow judge. It presents itself like a blank sheet of gift wrap, asking: “To what surface should I conform?” As if slowly feeling the shape of an object in the dark. One touch, one brush, one tap at a time. Then, it adapts. But if wewant to do this, adapt like water, we must question each situation anew.

“Empty your mind. Be formless. Shapeless. Like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash.”

Despite having no form and being infinitely soft, water is one of, if not thestrongest element on earth. When there’s even a tiny path, water will trickle along. When there’s no path, it’ll silently, almost immovably wear away the stone. And if the terrain is wide open, it can transform into a raging torrent. Thanks to this never-ending balancing act, water always finds its way home.

“Water may seem to move in contradiction, even uphill, but it chooses any way open to it so that it may reach the sea. It may flow swiftly or it may flow slowly, but its purpose is inexorable, its destiny sure. Be water, my friend.”

Like water, the Kung Fu master is fast when it matters. And when it doesn’t, which is most of the time, his default is to stay calm. To move slowly.

The words ‘early’ and ‘late’ only affect us in extremes. Too early, too late, these can make all the difference. What falls in between barely registers. There’s always another bus coming, another task waiting, another deal to be made.

Be fast when it matters. When you are, be swift like the wind. But don’t spend life quicker than it already runs out. It passes fast for all of us. When there’s no need to rush, to fight, to struggle, to crash, be calm like a pond.

Remember that life is balance. Unity. And every spectrum has two ends.

“Everyone’s first draft is shit.” -Ernest Hemingway I have a friend. He calls himself a writer. He’s been working on his book for the past 6 years. 6 years ago, I was stoked for him. “That’s awesome, man! Wow, can’t wait to read it when it comes out. How’s writing going??” I’d always check in […]

I have a friend. He calls himself a writer. He’s been working on his book for the past 6 years.

6 years ago, I was stoked for him. “That’s awesome, man! Wow, can’t wait to read it when it comes out. How’s writing going??” I’d always check in with him and the book.

Writing was always going alright, he said. But as the years went by, I noticed that he was always about “two thirds done.”

The really sad part? I’ve read the book. It’s not that great. I don’t meant to be rude, the book is what it is — a first-time author’s first attempt. But he’s spent 6 years (and counting) on a book that won’t be good when (if) he ever publishes. What he (and most other people) don’t realize is that his 2nd book will be better…if he ever gets there.

If you begin before you think you’re ready, you’ll achieve more success than 95% of others.

Why? Because most people are perfectionists who take years to produce a “piece of art” that’s, frankly, mediocre. Their 2nd attempt will be better, their 3rd attempt even more so.

Spectacular Failure = Spectacular Success

“Spectacular failure is the secret ingredient to your ultimate success.”

-Leslie Odom Jr.

I’ve been writing for over 6 years now.

Last year, I gave my first webinar. It was a training on writing, with a sales pitch for a big writing course I had spent the past 4 months creating.

I was expecting huge numbers; of RSVP’s, of viewers, of sales. I remember going on a bike ride with my younger brother and bragging, “Yeah, I think I’ll see $10,000 for my first launch, but $20,000 would be better.”

You want to know how many sales I had? You wanna know?

Zero.

Zero sales.

I was crushed. Like, take-a-long-look-and-reexamine-your-life crushed.

Turns out, I was a terrible salesman who talked too fast and didn’t really provide any value.

Humbled, I dropped the price by 80% and weakly organized another webinar. No more bragging this time. Hell, if I made one sale, I’d be ecstatic.

And you know what? That’s exactly what I made. 1 sale. (Her name was Anna and I’m truly grateful for her business).

A few webinars later, I raised the price again, and had a few more sales. And a few more. A few months later, I made more in sales that month than any month working at my old high-level desk job.

“This is the process by which wealth is accumulated; first in small sums, then in larger ones as a man learns and becomes more capable.” -George S. Clason

Spectacular failure = spectacular success.

The reason you’ll succeed? Most people’s first drafts are terrible. That’s OK. Their 2nd draft will be a little better — if they ever bother to get there.

Will you?

“To improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” -Epictetus

Your Success is Determined By How Much Embarrassment You Can Take.

“Success is a direct result of the number of experiments you perform.” -Michael Simmons

When you give in to embarrassment, you instantly squash your progress and momentum. You get stuck.

Embarrassment is a momentum-killer and a dream-killer. When you let your fear of being laughed at override your pursuit of success, your dreams die and you give your power to deadbeats who have no business commenting on your life.

“Successful, happy, well-emotionally-balanced people don’t have time to shit on somebody else.” -Sean Stephenson

In his book The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss described several strategies he used to overcome his fear of embarrassment. He would intentionally wear ridiculous outfits (clown shoes, light-up neon ties, oversized pink blazers, etc.) to parties and gatherings so he could embrace his embarrassment.

This allowed him to get over the fear, and then use that confidence to start “crazy” dreams most people called foolish and stupid. (Ferriss is now a wildly successful entrepreneur, investor, author, and hosts several of his own TV shows).

Your success is determined by how much embarrassment you can take before you quit and give in to the laughter.

Look, getting laughed at sucks. I hate that feeling. I’m not going to lie and say it won’t bother you.

But you can still move forward in the face of jeering laughter and mean jokes.

Wrote best-selling author and speaker Dr. David Schwartz: “All around you is an environment that is trying to pull you down to Second Class Street.” Much of the thinking around you is small-minded. Many people live on pain-avoidance and fear-avoidance, and encourage others to dwell in that mindset, too.

These are not the voices you should listen to. I’ve learned that every worthy pursuit — to be an actor, a creative, to write a book, start a business, run a marathon, change careers, move abroad, etc. — is met with an abundance of criticism, doubters, and naysayers.

If you give in to your embarrassment, odds are you’ll never achieve your goals.

Don’t be embarrassed.

“The more bold you are, the more rejection you’ll experience.” -Todd Henry

Just Start. More Will Be Revealed To You.

When I first started writing, I thought the only thing I needed to be good as was, well…writing. If I could write good blogs, everything would fall into place.

But after I learned how to write well (4.5 years into it), I realized just how many more tools and skills I needed to master:

Email lists

Webinars

Online courses

Coaching packages

Personal branding

Article pitching

Book launches

Networking

And a million other things.

More will be revealed to you…but only if you actually do the work and go. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck sitting in level 1 when there are 99 more levels to go.

Look — just start. Do what you have to do today. When you do, you can rest assured that thousands of other people didn’t do that today. They were too busy re-editing another section of their book they’ve been writing for 6 years.

This is what is meant by the phrase, “move fast and break things.” You have a lot to learn. You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

Beginning Before You’re Ready Expands Your Mindset By 100x

“At the moment when we accept our weaknesses and stop deciding to grow, we’re the BEST we’re ever going to be. It’s all downhill from there.” -Ramit Sethi

Life is a constant cycle from amateur to master, beginner to professional. You have been learning new skills since you were a baby — how to talk, walk, do algebra, ask a girl out, pay your taxes.

Sadly, most people stop this cycle very early, usually shortly after college.

The truth is, you need many more skills and much more knowledge if you ever want to achieve your biggest goals. A Super Bowl-winning quarterback needs to know more than how to throw a ball well; they need to master brand management, contract negotiations, nutrition, strengths training, and leading a team.

You’ll never get those skills if you don’t begin before you feel ready.

Beginning before you’re ready will expand your mindset by 100x and teach you things 95% of your competition doesn’t even know they don’t know.

What sets me apart from most other writers isn’t my talent. There are far more talented writers out there.

What sets me apart is that I’m not afraid to be embarrassed, try new experiments, and fail forward.

It sucks getting laughed at.

But it sucks more to realize you’re in the same place you were last year with no progress.

In Conclusion

Start before you feel ready.

At a writing conference, a best-selling author once compared writing great content like turning on a dirty, rusty faucet.

When you first turn on the faucet, the water is brown and dirty. It’s gross.

This is where most people stop and turn the faucet off.

But if you keep the water running, that dirty brown water will run out and give way to crystal clear, refreshing water.

You have a lot of failures, embarrassments, and mistakes to get through before you reach that col, refreshing water.

Turn the faucet on, and leave it running. Even when it’s hard and people are laughing.

I wouldn’t say that I’m particularly a morning person, so it’s quite ironic that I’m writing this post. In fact, for the first 20 years of my life I loved sleeping in — and to be honest, I still enjoy it every now and then to this day. However, it’s no secret that many high-performers wake up […]

I wouldn’t say that I’m particularly a morning person, so it’s quite ironic that I’m writing this post. In fact, for the first 20 years of my life I loved sleeping in — and to be honest, I still enjoy it every now and then to this day.

However, it’s no secret that many high-performers wake up early so that they can get a head start over everyone else. So, I quickly realized that, as an entrepreneur, I was leaving a lot of performance potential on the table when I’d start my workday later than I could, and when I’d let my mornings go unstructured.

Even though I’m not a part of the 5 AM club, I’ve become more of a morning person over the years and I actually start my days in a productive, motivated and energized way — which is the complete opposite of how I used to start them years ago.

In this article, I’ll share the 7 easy hacks that helped me transform from being someone who hated mornings to someone who actually enjoys his mornings.

Morning Hack #1: Put Your Alarm In A Different Room

While living in a new apartment for a few weeks now, I dropped one of my most important morning habits (new environments have the tendency to change your behaviour), which is putting my alarm far away from my bed. No wonder that I had a lot of trouble with waking up early over the past few weeks.

For many days in a row, I fell back into my old behaviour of snoozing and sleeping in until an unacceptable time. Needless to say, my productivity and performance suffered from it. Fortunately, I realized that it was because I didn’t put my alarm far away from my bed.

Normally, I put my alarm in a different room so that I have to get out of bed in order to put it off. And when I’m already up and in a different room, there’s no way I’m going back to bed. In other words, this little hack is my fail-safe method to prevent myself from snoozing and sleeping in — and it will help you do the same.

Instead of putting your alarm next to your bed, put it somewhere where you physically have to go out of your bed and walk for a bit in order to put the alarm off. This will prevent repeated snoozing. As soon as I started doing this again a few days ago, I had no trouble waking up early anymore.

If you use something like a wake-up light as an alarm (just like I do), I recommend you set a second alarm on a different device (such as your phone or a classic alarm) which you place in a different room. This way, you combine the best of both worlds.

Morning Hack #2: Immediately Drink 2 Glasses of Water

After being without water for about 8 hours, your body is dehydrated and you absolutely need to fuel it with water as soon as possible. The reason why most people feel tired, foggy and unmotivated in the morning is simply that they are dehydrated. And when you’re dehydrated, the performance of your body and brain decrease dramatically.

The brain consists of 75% of water, so it’s no wonder that we start to experience immediate effects when we don’t drink enough water. I always ask people who feel sluggish, unfocused and low on energy if they drank enough water and the answer is almost always no.

In short, drinking enough water makes sure the energy production of the brain is functioning well, while not drinking enough leads to lower energy production, leaving you to feel foggy, fatigued and not sharp. All of which leads to unpleasurable mornings and heavily decreased productivity levels.

So, right after waking up, drink 2 solid glasses of water to kickstart your energy production and make you feel more awake and energized.

Morning Hack #3: Move With Your Body

Another energizing morning hack is to move with your body for about 2–5 minutes. Whether it’s jumping, push-ups, kettlebell swing (my personal favourite), some yoga or doing a few sprints, it doesn’t really matter.

The important thing is that you do something that elevates your heartrate so that your body starts to produce cortisol (which helps you to wake up) and your blood flow increases (which helps to transfer energy throughout the body).

Personally, the difference in my ‘awakeness level’ is like day and night after doing 25 kettlebell swings. I no longer feel sluggish and foggy. Instead, I feel energized, awake and ready to tackle the day, and it merely takes me a minute to do.

Morning Hack #4: Do 1 Round of Intense Wim Hof Breathing

This morning hack may seem a bit unfamiliar, but it truly works wonders for feeling more awake and energized.

According to recent findings in the bio-hacking field, your breath has a strong influence on your health, energy and mental state of mind. It turns out that, by using only your breath, you can influence anything from your immune system to your creativity and your energy levels.

But for now, let’s just focus on how your breath can help you feel more energized and awake so that you can actually enjoy your mornings.

By breathing deeply through the belly, you inhale a lot more oxygen compared to what you normally do when you breathe on autopilot (in fact, the way most people breathe on autopilot is one of the leading causes of low energy and diseases).

In a nutshell, more oxygen equals more energy. And when you have more energy, you’ll feel much more awake.

If you want to experience the energy-generating benefits of breathwork right away, you can try the following exercise (which is from the Wim Hof Method), which I do on a regular basis to instantly get into a peak state:

For 10–30 seconds, inhale and exhale strongly through your mouth, without any pauses in between the breaths. It’s important to breathe through your belly instead of through your chest.

Important: you will probably start to feel light-headed, which is completely normal. Always make sure you do this exercise in a safe environment and never do it while driving or while swimming.

Now notice how you feel. You might even feel tingling sensations in your body, and you probably feel a bit more lightheaded. But overall, you feel energized. You’ve flooded your body with oxygen, and that means that you have generated a ton of energy. If you’re like me, you feel hyped and ready to tackle whatever is in your way.

So far, I’ve never experienced that I didn’t feel motivated or energized to go out and crush it after doing this breathing exercise. Try it for yourself!

Morning Hack #5: Don’t Look At Your Smartphone For The First 20+ Minutes

One of the worst morning habits that most people have adopted nowadays is that they immediately check their phone upon waking up. The problem with this habit is that doing so immediately puts you in a reactive and distracted state of mind. All the messages, emails and notifications that you’ve received during the night immediately pull for your attention.

Instead of proactively deciding what you are going to do with your morning, you’re forced to reactively act on the things other people have thrown your way. This immediately puts you in a (mild) state of stress, distraction and overwhelm from the getgo. That’s not really an empowering start of the day, is it?

Instead, it’s much better to leave your smartphone untouched for at least the first 20 minutes (preferably longer) until you’ve proactively decided to engage in more empowering habits such as meditation, planning your day and setting goals & priorities.

If you use your smartphone as an alarm, put it on flight mode the night before. This way, you won’t see any of the notifications from social media, email or instant messaging.

Morning Hack #6: Do Something You Enjoy

If you hate everything you need to do in the morning, you won’t look forward to waking up and it’s hard to really enjoy your mornings. Instead, include an activity in your morning that you actually enjoy and that you look forward to doing. This will make waking up earlier a lot easier and you’ll find yourself becoming more and more of a morning person.

Personally, I really enjoy my 15-minute morning reading session combined with a delicious cup of coffee. It’s truly my moment while it also contributes to my personal growth (which is one of my most important values). Merely because of the anticipation of this enjoyable moment I wake up with more ease and I actually enjoy the morning.

Morning Hack #7: Get A Good Night’s Sleep

One of the most obvious, yet most neglected ways to become more of a morning person is to actually get a solid night’s sleep. And this doesn’t just mean that you sleep enough hours (although that’s important too), but you should also get high-quality, deep sleep.

When you actually get a good night’s sleep, you’ll feel much more energized and awake in the morning. No longer do you have to feel like you’ve been hit by a truck. Furthermore, it helps you to become more productive and focused throughout the day.

Use your bedroom for sleep and sex only — not for TV or other forms of entertainment

Journal before bed to get rid of distracting thoughts

Go easy on sugar and caffeine during your day

Sleep at least 7 hours

If you’re interested in learning how to upgrade your sleep quality, I recommend you read the book ‘Sleep Smarter’ by Shawn Stevenson and check out my article about how to improve your sleep quality.

Now Do It

As I said before, I used to have a very hard time waking up early and I never really considered myself a morning person. And even though there are many others who wake up much earlier than I do, these 7 morning hacks truly helped me to enjoy the morning a lot more than I’d ever thought I would. Slowly but surely, it helped me to become more of an early riser — which has a powerful effect on my productivity and performance.

Therefore, I highly encourage you to try out at least 4 of these habits for yourself in your very next morning — and let me know how it went for you!

This is a sponsored post written by AtomicReach. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Harnessing the power of SEO can feel like an overwhelming task. Whether you are a marketing professional, entrepreneur, or someone that just fell into the role of dealing with this, managing SEO can feel confusing. In its purest form, […]

This is a sponsored post written by AtomicReach. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Harnessing the power of SEO can feel like an overwhelming task.

Whether you are a marketing professional, entrepreneur, or someone that just fell into the role of dealing with this, managing SEO can feel confusing.

In its purest form, SEO is about page rankings, with the rules for ranking associated with search engine requirements.

However, while it may seem too technical, SEO is a crucial component of a successful content marketing strategy.

Creating content for the purposes of SEO can help you reach your target audience, and push them toward a conversion point.

The goal is to drive your audience to your web properties through search engine rankings. The higher the rank, the higher the chances of customers finding your website.

There are many ways to cause your site to rank, but in this article, we will focus primarily on content.

SEO-related content is material you produce for the sole purpose of helping your website rank higher on search engines.

This process typically depends on the keywords you choose to focus on, and the frequency at which you add new content.

6 Steps to Create Content for SEO

Again, SEO can get technical. However, at the heart of this process is the creation of solid content that provides value to your audience.

Here are the steps you should take to ensure you are creating content that will rank.

1. Decide on the Type of Content You Want to Create

It never hurts to have a variety of content available for your target audience.

The diversity of content allows you to appeal to various segments of your audience. Here are some of the types of SEO content you could utilize on your website:

Articles: Newsworthy pieces of writings that would likely be in a newspaper or magazine.

Blog posts: Typically articles between 1,000 and 1,500 words rank higher than others as they keep readers on pages for more extended periods. Using headings and creating prose that provides clear answers to questions also can help rankings.

Guides and Pillar Pages: These are likely going to be much longer than a blog post, and will seek to answer a more involved question. This content can be in one blog post or separated into multiple pages.

Infographics: This piece of content is great for capturing audiences that are more driven by visual material. The text in any infographic is not “crawlable” – because it is an image – so be sure to use Alt Text and pair it with a companion blog post or guide to maximize the SEO value of this content.

Listicles: Listicles are excellent for naturally including a variety of keywords and also for being easy to navigate.

Videos: Similar to infographics, videos cannot be “crawled,” but you can pair videos with an informative blog post or an SEO-friendly headline.

This list is not exhaustive, as there are numerous other types of content. You can also combine many of the content mediums above.

2. Audit Your Content & Determine Your Audience

Knowing who your audience is can help you select the best content type and use the most relevant keywords to organize your content for a better ranking.

One of the best ways to do this is to audit your content and identify what resonates with your audience.

Then, you can create personas that address demographic, location, and online behavior information.

You can then determine the type of questions these individuals would search, and select keywords and phrases to use in your content that would rank for these questions.

3. Establish Goals

What are you looking to gain?

Do you want to increase conversions?

Do you seek to establish a brand voice, or generally raise awareness of your company?

Your content creation and SEO efforts should help you reach these milestones. Take the time to develop actionable goals and create a strategy for how your content can help you reach them.

For example, if you want to push your webinars to become the main attraction point for your audience, you should optimize the verbiage and headline associated with it to attract and retain customers.

You can then track how successful your content efforts are using site analytics that is related to your webinar.

Therefore, it is essential to have a strategy for when and how you will create the content. An editorial calendar enables you to develop a timeline for content creation and have a location to store and organize content.

You can plan out content ahead of time and even do preliminary research as far as relevant keywords and phrases to include in your writing. Here are a few tips to get started:

Instead of creating an editorial calendar from scratch, look into using a template and customizing it to suit your needs. Many will include an actual calendar and spreadsheets to store content ideas and relevant links.

Categorize your content by topic or type, this will make it easy to search for what you need.

Include a category for potential keywords and tags. This will make research easier, as you have already determined the terms and phrases you want to use.

5. Create Your Content

Once you have determined the type of content you want to create and developed a schedule for posting, it is time to build your content.

The process will include a bit of a more in-depth plan for keyword research, content length, and strategic keywords and phrasing placement.

Again, your goal is to combine the practice of developing engaging content with the technical aspect of keyword optimization.

Leveraging content intelligence is essential in this step. Digging into the metrics that are actually driving your conversions is the easiest way to ensure your content will be effective, without having to guess.

6. Evaluate Progress

Your website’s analytics will tell the story of your content’s performance. Page visits, bounce rates, and attribution will all convey the potential success of your content.

You can also look deeper by asking questions like:

Are people commenting?

Are individuals being directed to a conversion?

This information will not only help you know the outcome of your content, but it will also allow you to see where to improve and to understand if you need to update or replace other material.

Final Thoughts

SEO doesn’t have to be a complicated process.

Once you understand its importance and how it relates to your content, you can then begin to create material that helps your website rank.

Figure out a formula that works for you, and begin to implement it for all of your content.

The hardest part is getting started.

Again, start with assessing your audience, and then research topics that best relate to them and your industry as a whole.

From there, you can begin to make decisions about the keywords and phrases that will match to their potential searches and cause your content to rank.

In the past, I often used to feel unmotivated to sit down and do the work. Almost every single day I noticed the excuses coming up as they tried to talk me out of my work. In other words, procrastination was looking for its way to creep in — and often it managed to convince me to […]

In the past, I often used to feel unmotivated to sit down and do the work. Almost every single day I noticed the excuses coming up as they tried to talk me out of my work. In other words, procrastination was looking for its way to creep in — and often it managed to convince me to do something else (like placing my books in the right order on my bookshelf)

However, as someone who helps content creators, entrepreneurs and other high achievers raise their personal performance, I learned a thing or two about the psychology of motivation. So, fortunately, I’m now quite easily able to break through the excuses and generate the motivation to start working.

So, if you ever find yourself procrastinating more than you’d like because you struggle with getting motivated, I’d recommend you read this post carefully.

Discipline Versus Motivation

There are a ton of gurus out there who claim that you should ‘just be disciplined’ and disregard motivation if you want to achieve anything meaningful. I don’t agree.

Don’t get me wrong, discipline is incredibly important and it helps you to get your work done. But disregarding motivation is a mistake.

When you truly understand the mechanics of motivation, you’ll make your (work)life so much easier. The truth is, you can generate motivation at your own command if you understand the psychology behind it.

Motivation, unlike claimed by many, is not random. It’s not something that just happens. Like every other effect, it’s caused by something.

When you understand this, you no longer have to force yourself to do the work, which can sometimes be a drag on your overall mood and energy level. Rather, you use the power of motivation to your advantage.

Personally, I believe we should make our work as fun as possible. When you spend so much of your time on this planet working, why not enjoy it as much as you can? In fact, it has been proven that being happy at work makes you more productive, which is a key component of success.

Power Versus Force

Where forcing yourself to do the work is like swimming against the current, getting yourself motivated to do the work is like swimming with the current. Both will result in getting the job done, but with a completely different mood and perspective.

For the first approach, you’ll need to use a lot of force in order to get to your desired destination. For the second approach, you’ll make use of power in order to get to your desired destination.

This is something that David R. Hawkins writes about in his book Power vs Force. He describes force as ‘something that changes the momentum of an object. It’s something you do to get certain results or try to project onto others.’

Whereas he describes power as ‘something that already resides from within. There’s no need to apply force because it’s already there and omnipotent.’

Force is intrinsically incomplete and therefore has to constantly be fed energy. Power is total and complete in and of itself and requires nothing from outside of itself.

Because force has an insatiable appetite, it constantly consumes. Power, in contrast, energizes, gives forth, supplies, and supports.

In other words, we need to learn how to use power (motivation) instead of force (discipline) if we want to quickly & easily stop procrastinating and improve our productivity levels — and that’s what we’re going to dive into right now.

How To Generate The Power of Motivation To Stop Procrastinating

The most likely reason why you feel unmotivated is that, temporarily, you are in a lousy state of mind. From that state of mind, you don’t feel like doing the ‘right’ things that move you upward in life.

This state of mind can be caused by many different things. The most common ones are:

Feeling stressed

Sleeping in

Excessive drinking & being hungover

Hanging out with unmotivated and unambitious people

The lack of clear goals & priorities

Watching a lot of TV or Netflix (especially when done in the morning)

Scrolling through social media (especially when done in the morning)

Snoozing a few times before waking up

Eating bad foods that create energy crashes or a heavy feeling

Procrastinating

If you find yourself engaged in one or more of the above-mentioned points, chances are that you’ll pull yourself into a lousy state of mind. From that state of mind, it’ll be incredibly hard to feel motivated to work, study or exercise.

So, as an antidote, you need to apply a few state change ‘hacks’ to go from a lousy state of mind to a peak state of mind. This is exactly what you have to do every single time in order to go from unmotivated to highly motivated.

Getting Into A Peak State of Mind

You’ve probably been into a peak state of mind yourself a few times (hopefully many times). It’s that state of mind in which you just feel like you can take on the entire world. You’re ambitious, you crush your to-do’s and you feel like a total badass.

You want to do the right things, eat the right foods and do what’s good for you and your future. No way that you’ll procrastinate in that state of mind.

Unfortunately, most people rarely experience days in which they’re in a peak state. And that’s absolutely something that hasto change if you want to stop procrastinating.

Therefore, you’ve got to integrate so-called peak-state habits in your daily life. Most of these ‘state change habits’ involve the use of your body, as the way you use your body massively determines your psychology and emotional state.

Change the way you move, change the way you feel.

What you do with your body is a huge determining factor in the way you feel and the state of mind you’re in. That’s why, whenever I need to change my state, I do things like Wim Hof breathing exercises, take a cold shower, meditate or do a quick workout. This immediately changes my physiology, which has a direct effect on the neurons in my brain, which in turn puts me in a happier, more energetic and motivated mindset. Don’t forget, the mind and body are incredibly connected.

On top of that, it’s critical to feed your mind the right things if you want to get into peak state. You’re not going to get into peak state if you’re playing video games or watching Netflix. Rather, do some of the following things to get into a peak state of mind:

Exercise and move with your body

Do breathwork exercises (Wim Hof style breathing for example)

Take cold-showers

Do affirmations

Visualize

Meditate

Review your goals

Read (self-development and business books)

Listen to an inspiring podcast

Watch a motivational video

Focus on the pleasure you get from doing the work instead of all the ‘pain’

Focus on the long-term consequences of not doing the work

All of these habits feed your mind and body in such a way that you’ll feel more inspired, motivated and focused on the important things in life. Implement a few of these habits in your daily life and you’ll automatically find yourself less and less in a lousy state, and more often in a peak state.

This is, in my opinion, a much more enjoyable and effective way to get yourself to do the work. You use the power within your own body and mind rather than forcing yourself to do the work.

For those days in which you do still get into a lousy state, try to change your state as quickly as possible. The longer you wait, the harder it’ll become. So, move with your body, do some rapid breathing exercises, visualize about your goals, review your goals or watch a motivational video to get into a peak state immediately. From this state of mind, you’ll find it much easier to work hard, crush your goals and stop procrastinating.

For today I decided to watch a short motivational video, take 10 intense breaths (to generate energy), do 20 kettlebell swings and focus on the long-term consequences of not doing the work (miss out on potential income, no audience growth etc.). This helped me to generate the necessary motivation to work with power, rather than force.

Now Do It

Successfully changing your state at will, over and over again, is what will set you apart from the rest. It’s what will help you perform at the highest levels, stop procrastinating and do the things that are right for you and your future.

Instead of having to force yourself to do the work, you make use of the power that’s already within you (as cheesy as it sounds, it’s true). Try it for yourself and see what these state changes will do to you.

Learn How To Stop Procrastinating:

Do you procrastinate more than you’d like? And does it limit your growth and results in life? Learn how to break the procrastination habit once and for all! Feel free to download my 18-page guide ‘How To Stop Procrastinating’ right underneath.

In many ways, the internet has made the impossible possible. We’ve made remarkable progress in less than a decade. We’ve gotten closer and closer to the democratization of creativity and entrepreneurship, making it easier than any other time in history to go from idea to execution. But have we really used it to solve essential […]

In many ways, the internet has made the impossible possible. We’ve made remarkable progress in less than a decade. We’ve gotten closer and closer to the democratization of creativity and entrepreneurship, making it easier than any other time in history to go from idea to execution. But have we really used it to solve essential problems? Or have we wasted its potential?

Peter Thiel famously said we wanted flying cars, and we got 140 characters.

“ A technology genius has two basic options. For example, he can dedicate his work to creating medical a breakthrough that will save thousands of lives — or he can develop an app that will let people amuse themselves. In most cases, the technology genius will be pushed to focus on the product that has the potential to create millions of dollars in profits. Profit is the North Star of conventional economics. Lacking a collective destination, the only highway we follow is the North Star of Profit” says Muhuamad Yunnus

Digital narcism and voueyrism have masqueraded for real connection. People who influence the social web have the power to bring about social change. But if that influence is used for nothing more than uploading selfies, and motivational memes, while collecting likes and hearts, we’re pissing away the power of the social web. We’ve chosen to value attention over connection, metrics over meaning, and profit over purpose.

Instead of quantifying influences in likes and comments maybe we should quantify it in the schools we’ve built or people we’ve fed. Instead of using the currency of our attention to inflate people’s egos and vanity metrics, what if every like, retweet, comment or clap, resulted in a donation to an important cause. Facebook has billions of users, but maybe we’d be better off if Kiva had billions of users instead.

But this would require a substantial change in our values. It would require us to see that as a species we operate as an interdependent system. There’s nothing you do that doesn’t influence somebody else on the planet:

The shoes you wear might be made by somebody working in a sweatshop in Malaysia

The fruit you’re eating might have been picked by someone who spent hours on end in the hot sun

Some wage slave at Foxconn made the iPhone you’re possibly reading this on

You might be ignoring the person you’re with right now to read this

It’s easy to be indifferent when you overlook interdependency. It’s easy to focus exclusively on profit while neglecting the well being of others. When we ignore interdependency, the result is extremes: wealth and poverty, starvation and obesity, perfect health and unimaginable illness.

Our behavior and our actions create ripples that extend beyond our lives and our time. An entire generation of college students has been riddled with debt because of how governments and financial institutions mismanaged the economy. People who should be punished are rewarded, and people who should be rewarded are punished.

We have the tools, resources, and technology to solve major problems. Influencers can influence real change. Media creators have the power to highlight essential stories. But the profit motive always precedes moral responsibility. So we write what will get the most clicks, interview the podcast guest that we think will get us the most downloads, and post the Instagram picture we hope will get us the most likes. Metrics over meaning at every possible turn.

If somebody was to time travel from the early 90’s to today, and witness what we’ve done with these tools, they might feel as though we’ve entered an age of fragmented attention, rising anxiety, and idiocracy. All they’d have to do is look at some of the top 100 shows in iTunes, open up Snapchat, or read the front page of Buzzfeed, and they would see a society headed towards a questionable value system and idiocracy.

Have we really used the tools at our disposal to solve our most important problems? Or have we wasted their potential? Zig Ziglar famously said the person who won’t read is no better than the person who can’t. What’s the point of having the power to change the world if we don’t actually use it?